UFOs and Alien Life In the weird last minutes of the debate (the period, by the way, when The Fix made it onto the basketball court in high school) Rep. Dennis Kucinich (Ohio) gave us a highlight. Asked about the statement by actress Shirley MacLaine that Kucinich had seen a UFO at her house, Kucinich said that he had. He quickly sought to clarify — an “unidentified flying object” he said holding up his hand — but man oh man. The big news tonight: DENNIS KUCINICH HAS SEEN A UFO. Obama did not take the bait when asked whether he thought there is life on other planets. “I believe there is life here on Earth,” he said, turning his answer into a domestic policy statement.
US Democratic hopeful Kucinich meets Assad, blasts Bush
By ASSOCIATED PRESS BEIRUT, Lebanon US Democratic presidential hopeful Dennis Kucinich, on a Mideast visit that included a stop in Syria, said the country lambasted by the Bush administration deserves credit for taking in more than a million Iraqi refugees.
Kucinich, a strong anti-war opponent who trails far in the US presidential polls, also said he won’t visit Iraq on his trip to the region because he considers the US military deployment there illegal. “I feel the United States is engaging in an illegal occupation … I don’t want to bless that occupation with my presence,” he said in an interview in Lebanon, after visiting Syria. “I will not do it.” Kucinich, who accused the Bush administration of policies that have destabilized the Mideast, met with Syrian President Bashar Assad during his visit to Damascus. He said Assad was receptive to his ideas of “strength through peace.” He also praised Syria for taking in Iraqi refugees. “What most people are not aware of is that Syria has taken in more than 1.5 million Iraqi refugees,” Kucinich said. “The Syrian government has actually shown a lot of compassion in keeping its doors open, and being a host for so many refugees.” Kucinich said he would ask UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to follow up on the “dire conditions” in southern Lebanon, especially Israeli cluster bombs leftover from the war that have killed more than 30 and injured at least 200 since the fighting’s end. “There has to be a commitment to cleaning up these cluster bombs,” Kucinich said.
Kucinich hospitalized with apparent food poisoning Associated Press CLEVELAND – Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich, who is a vegan, has been hospitalized with “severe” effects of apparent food poisoning. The 60-year-old congressman from Cleveland became sick Sunday night while flying to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., to address the national Longshoremen’s convention. He went ahead with the speech Monday but immediately returned home and was hospitalized in the Cleveland area. The name of the hospital wasn’t disclosed. Andy Juniewicz, a campaign spokesman, said Kucinich was improving Tuesday night and said no medical update was available Wednesday morning. Kucinich, a former Cleveland mayor, typically polls in the low single digits.
